National Age Group Record holder Isabella Rongione has verbally committed to the USC Trojans. Rongione is just completing her junior year of high school and will join USC in the fall of 2017.
happy to announce my verbal commitment to swim at USC starting in 2017!! #fighton pic.twitter.com/0Rpcd3D9hd
— Isabella Rongione (@IRongione) May 19, 2016
She will join fellow phenom, international-caliber swimmer, and class of 2016 commit Becca Mann, who joins USC this fall.
Rongione, a member of the USA Swimming National Junior Team in open water, currently owns two National Age Group Records, both in long course meters. She was 8:55.43 in the 800 free when she was 12, and 16:48.12 in the 1500 free at the same age.
While Rongione doesn’t give much focus on short course swimming, the NCAP swimmer has already posted NCAA-qulaifying worthy times as young as 14 and 15 years old.
Her best times (yards/meters):
- 50 free – 24.43/28.02 (the latter at 12 years old)
- 100 free – 52.29/59.35 (at 13 years old)
- 200 free – 1:48.36/2:02.89
- 500y/400m free – 4:43.29/4:14.97
- 1000y/800m free – 9:41.13/8:39.09 (at 13 years old)
- 1650y/1500m free – 16:07.40/16:27.23
- 200 back – 2:00.29
- 200 fly – 1:59.83
- 400 IM – 4:16.56
While Rongione’s best time in the 800 free, her best Olympic event, is almost three years old, she was faster at 13 in that event than was her NCAP training partner – the current World Record holder Katie Ledecky. At the time, Rongione trained with the FISH.
While USC head coach is nicknamed “Sprint Salo” (which is the title of his book), USC’s credentials for producing distance swimmer are equally as impressive. 2012 Olympic silver medalist in the open water 10k Haley Anderson trains at USC, freshman Elizabeth Stinson won the Pac-12 title last year in the 1650 free, and junior Chelsea Chenault took the conference crown in the 500 free this past season.
When combined with Mann and Rongione, USC will have one of the most feared distance groups in the country, training under the guidance of Salo and his head assistant coach Catherine Vogt, who specializes in distance training.
PVS friends: facts are stubborn things and the record is what it is. I stand by my comment.
D3DAD. I can tell that you are not a FISH parent. Maybe you were and your kid “burnt out” on the program. For the past few years FISH have at least 3-4 high school seniors that go on to swim at collages such as State Colleges, The Service Academies, and Ivy League. I know these kids personally along with Kate Ziegler. Many kids finish the FISH program past the age of 15 (as stated in your previous post) and go off to reputable colleges to swim. Your facts are wrong and ignorant. It is hard to adjust to a new program like switching from FISH to NCAP. It takes some time to adjust which is what happened to Isabella. She… Read more »
Congratulations Bella from The Anderson family in MN!!
Bobo : she was a long time Fish swimmer – a club known to throw an ungodly amount of yardage at pre-teens. They get amazingly fast by age 12 but typically transfer to another club by age 15 before succumbing to burn out or injury or both. The Fish approach produced Kate Ziegler, but pretty much a zero on the college level since then.
Wow – what a sad unjustified comment. The FISH is a small club – aprox 350 swimmers from minis to seniors. In PVS, the FISH produces more than it’s share of fantastic well rounded kids – who go on to great colleges. Some swim some don’t but all are great kids who enjoyed a small family type club. Yes – everyone knows who is on the team and the coaches know you too. And yes – if you miss practice or slack off they notice – they care.
The FISH is a small club that works really hard – too hard for some so they leave and that’s okay. However – knowing swimmers from lots of different clubs – the… Read more »
Congratulations Bella!!! Your NCAP family is really proud of you!
My question is this – how are all these juniors able to “commit” when they “technically” can’t receive any type of offer? How does she know that Salo “will” take her? Several commits before the July 1 talking period seems really strange to me. It appears that USC has a habit of getting their classes in well before the official open season
Its verbal and nonbinding. Vogt is the open water national team coach and Im sure thats what is drawing her here. How many colleges have an open water swim coach and she is an open water swimmer like Haley Anderson who went to SC also
It’s not just USC. I think it’s pretty common. I too have a rising senior getting significant offers already. Certain types of communications between coaches and swimmers are allowed beginning in Junior yr. Prospective offers can surely be discussed and verbally agreed to.
We wish Isabella all the best at USC. She is a great swimmer.
Miss Rongione has stalled for a few years now. I thought she would improve a lot while training at NCAP with Katie Ledecky but it didn’t happen like that so far.
Hopefully she has not peaked when she was 13 or 14 and can surprise us with good olympic trials.
she has been an outstanding swimmer her entire career. It’s very difficult to stay at the top during the age group years and continue into the high school years. You have to handle many things like puberty and how your body handles it, avoid or deal with injuries plus the pressures of sometimes just wanting to be a “normal” kid and not have to go to bed early because you have practice in the morning. Everyone’s career has ups and downs and challenges. I don’t know the girl but to get an offer from USC tells me she is still on the right track.
I remember the first time I saw her swim. I think she was 10 and swimming against and beating 12 year olds (fast 12 year olds). Then when she was 12 I saw her swim the 400 free and it was like she was shot out of a cannon. Her 1st 50 looked like she was only swimming a 50 but she kept going at the same speed. Amazing.